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You're right, R. Or at least that's what it's supposed o be. But I have seen some JPs allow friends to represent their friends, although the Justice of the Peace is well within his/her rights to not allow it.

Yes you can represent someone or attend on their behalf (sorry R & RI). The only issue is whether you will go "on record" as representing them. What that means is you state your name and say that you are representing your friend. If you don't want to go on record, it becomes a little tricky.

I cover this in detail in Step 2 of my site ("Change the trial date"). It explains what you should be considering when doing this. (sorry, I can't link to my own site.)

The other aspect is unlicensed representation is allowed as long as you are not getting paid to be there and your main occupation does not involve representing people in court. The exemption to the licensing requirement is under the Law Society Act, By-law #4, Part 5, Section 30, sub 5 (pg 24). Print this and have it in your back pocket in case you get challenged in court about representing your friend.

Moderator

ticketcombat wrote:Yes you can represent someone or attend on their behalf (sorry R & RI). The only issue is whether you will go "on record" as representing them. What that means is you state your name and say that you are representing your friend. If you don't want to go on record, it becomes a little tricky.

I cover this in detail in Step 2 of my site ("Change the trial date"). It explains what you should be considering when doing this. (sorry, I can't link to my own site.)

The other aspect is unlicensed representation is allowed as long as you are not getting paid to be there and your main occupation does not involve representing people in court. The exemption to the licensing requirement is under the Law Society Act, By-law #4, Part 5, Section 30, sub 5 (pg 24). Print this and have it in your back pocket in case you get challenged in court about representing your friend.

ticketcombat wrote:Yes you can represent someone or attend on their behalf (sorry R & RI). The only issue is whether you will go "on record" as representing them. What that means is you state your name and say that you are representing your friend. If you don't want to go on record, it becomes a little tricky.

I cover this in detail in Step 2 of my site ("Change the trial date"). It explains what you should be considering when doing this. (sorry, I can't link to my own site.)

The other aspect is unlicensed representation is allowed as long as you are not getting paid to be there and your main occupation does not involve representing people in court. The exemption to the licensing requirement is under the Law Society Act, By-law #4, Part 5, Section 30, sub 5 (pg 24). Print this and have it in your back pocket in case you get challenged in court about representing your friend.

So all those ex-police officers are licenced paralegals? Or how does it work? Also, I saw one of the ticket defence firms contract that you sign and they claim that law does not require them to have any education to represent you? Doesn't paralegal licence require some sort of education?

I understand that the representative of XPOLICE is not a duly qualified lawyer, barrister or solicitor and is a member of the Law Society Upper Canada. While the law expects certain minimum standards of competence from lawyers, no such minimum standards are imposed upon agents who are not lawyers. The laws of Ontario do not require agents to receive any training or demonstrate any level of expertise before being allowed to receive payment in return for representing persons in either the Provincial Offence Act or the Criminal Code of Canada

The law changed a couple of years ago. Now all paralegals have to be licenced. As long as you are not charging money, you can represent someone else.

There was a grandfathering provision that allowed existing paralegals to write a qualification test. Now, every new paralegal must attend a 2 year community college set of courses and pass the licence examination.

There are some unlicenced "paralegals" that subcontract out to licenced ones.